chicks, goslings, bunnies … and snow!

The Easter bunny paid us a visit – though the bunny’s “elf” must plan her time better next year to avoid midnight sewing sessions! I made the little Birds of a Feather projects into different bags, pouches and sacks to hold the Easter Bunny’s bounty. More embellishments may be added in the future – I was waaaay to tired last night to fiddle around with trims, etc.

We managed to complete our egg hunt before the snow (!) got serious.

With our farming interest, of course Easter is full of baby animals. This year we’re happy to introduce our first gosling, a Pilgrim goose girl, that the kids have named Peppers.

Her Runner duck roommates, both Fawn drakes, are called Olives and Pickles.

We’ve had 5 new Barred Hollands hatch to accompany the Black Javas and older Barred Hollands that hatched about a week earlier.

Walter continues to grow, albeit rather slowly as he’ll only drink milk … lazy little bugger.

And just so you don’t think I was goofing about the Easter snow, here’s the view out my kitchen window:

A couple of technical issues:

The weird photos are due to the demise of Picnik – I’m trying to adjust to the unsatisfactory Flikr replacement of Picnik with Aviary. Please, Picnik, come back … I miss you!!! Edited to add: Thank you, Terra!! I think PicMonkey is just the thing!

It’s come to my attention that people w/o a WordPress account haven’t been able to comment on my blog. I’d noticed a decline in comments and had assumed I’d become boring, but Carol pointed this out to me. I’ve gone through all my settings and there is nothing that should block non-WP users … I’m curious if anyone else has had this problem. If you have, or if you know of a solution, would you let me know?

how do i do it?

My dad was asking me this the other day when I went out to visit for a few minutes. “How do you do it?” But his question for something else. My question, for how do I do it, is:

How do I get my blogroll to show new posts?

I’ve appended and prepended the blogs in Blogrolling with NEW! and set the timer to 24 hours and checked and double checked everything both in Blogrolling and in my Links (through WordPress) and everything seems to be right … but my blogroll list is just static.

I’ve used Bloglines for a couple of years and although it’s not perfect, it was acceptable. Unfortunately, they’re closing their doors. I thought to return to Blogrolling, which I used back when I had my blog with Blogger (but you can manipulate your CSS in Blogger). Blah blah blah. Anyway, I’m stuck – I want to keep abreast of people’s blog updates but I obviously can’t open 200+ blogs every time I’m online just to see if anyone’s updated. Your suggestions are hugely appreciated!

I have not picked up a piece of linen or a needle since my last post. It’s been exciting and busy days getting used to my new job with United Way, attending school meetings, cooking, and so on. Wonderful, busy days that go by far too fast. (And that is what my Dad’s “how do you do it” comment applied to.)

Thanks again for any and all assistance you can give me in keeping up with your wonderful blogs. Also, if you noticed your blog is not in my blogroll list, please let me know so I can rectify that!

comments

First off, a funny comment I overheard today. Nicky and Rowen were playing outside and I caught part of their conversation:

Rowen – No, Nicky, that’s not right. I can’t be an old grandma because I’m just a little girl!

Nicky – That’s the way it works, Rowen. Mama started off as a little girl and just look at how old she is now!

Less funny comments have been appearing in my blog. I don’t know what WordPress has done, but my automatic rejection setting for any comments that contain links (to weed out spammers) has been totally ignored and every time I log on, I find more and more nasty comments with links to sex sites – which I obviously delete immediately. My apologies to everyone – although I have no control over it, I still feel very uncomfortable that your visits to my blog have subjected you to such unsavory stuff. I’ve tightened up my restrictions even further, but if the problem continues I will consider moving my blog away from WordPress.

Now, on to the stitching!

Today my nearly-neighbor Marlies came over and we stitched for an hour or two. It was very companionable and pleasant and I had a chance to break out the new silk for Thine Forever. After the kids were in bed, I continued with the project and I’m now at a place where I feel a little more confident that I really will be able to finish this by Monday.

I’m also looking at possible future projects and I’d like to hear your opinion of this floss toss for Faith, by Examplar Dames. The linen is 36 count Porcelain from Silkweaver, and I’m considering one-over-two coverage to give it a delicate/antique appearance.

Arden had lots of tummy time today, but at one point he was just falling over from weariness. He continued trying to hold  his head up to grin at me right up till the moment (just shortly after I took this picture) that he clunked over, sound asleep.

Max finished the Avondvierdaagse march tonight and was very pleased with himself. Niek took Nicky and Rowen down to cheer him in as the walkers streamed back to the starting point to receive their medallions and to be showered with candy and gifts (as is the tradition). The kids were practically vibrating with excitement when they came home. Max and Niek are off for a weekend of sailing tomorrow; I’ve got some different ideas of what to do with the wee beasties during our time alone together …

Wishing one and all a lovely weekend!!

blogging to the future

I’ve decided to join in on the April NaBloPoMo daily blogging challenge – the theme is letters, and I cannot resist. However, there are two weekends that we’ll be away during April, so that necessitated figuring out how to ‘blog to the future’ – which turns out to be remarkably simple. I’ve also found the instructions on how to post pictures and text to my sidebar, which is something I’ve wanted to do since switching my blog over to WP. I’m to be sternly chastised for not going over to the FAQ site long ago. Shame on me!

Last night I was distracted by an amusing film: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Niek and I both love old movies, so the sepia-tone cinematography and 40′s feel was a lot of fun for both of us. Arden slept through it, though – LOL! I didn’t get as much stitching done as I’d hoped, though. I managed to finish the first side of my replacement biscornu. This is stitched on a mystery evenweave from Niek’s Oma using Needlepaints 2104. The design is from a past issue of TGOSM. That magazine is so great – any time I’m the least bit stumped for a project, I can find something in one of the back issues.

has spring sprung for you?

Ohmygosh, I nearly overlooked it – today’s the first day of spring! Thanks to Michele for reminding me! Our morning weather has so far included a thunder storm and enough hail to accumulate on the ground. Mother Nature is laughing herself silly, no doubt!

gifts – in the making and in the receiving

Thanks to a wonderful better half who does the shopping and the cooking on the weekends (and to anyone wondering, yes, he does have brothers but I got the best one in the bunch!) I’ve been able to get some stitches into Cardinal Blessings and Niek assures me that even though it’s very tiny, the design is still clear. Have you ever tried a design over one just to discover that the design comes out looking like blots on the linen? I have – and what a disappointment that is! But this time, it looks like it’ll work out. What do you think?

What I’ve done has come at the cost of working on Karen V’s Quaker. They’re both projects that require pretty good lighting and reasonable concentration. But as I figure, the Quaker is due 15 December, whereas the Cardinal is a Christmas gift, so I’d really like to get that out ASAP. I don’t know if it will be in time for Christmas, though. 

Speaking of Christmas, I don’t understand how it’s possible that I was actually doing so well staying on track and then all of a sudden the holiday is only a few weeks away and I’m not finished (some things never even got started!). Oh well, I’ll try to console myself that at least I got a few ornaments out to a few very special friends this year. Hopefully I’ll do a bit better next year!

But speaking of gifts and ornaments, a few have arrived that I sent out during my my latest postal exploits. Have I mentioned how much I dislike going to the post office? LOL! Am I alone in that? Is it a Dutch thing? A Barbara thing?

Anyway, here is Zack’s heart, which really should’ve been stitched, finished and sent out months ago, but at least it got there before he asked to borrow the car keys. This is a freebie design from The Workbasket, and the alphabet I used to personalize it is from Here be Wyverns.

And Dianne’s birthday gift, which did not make it on to a rocket, but wasn’t too awfully terribly embarassingly late. You may recognize this as Mary Kirby’s Home, which I did as a SAL with Max when he also stitched the design. I thought it was so perfect for Dianne and she has assured me that she likes it. The bookmark is by Mosey N’ Me. (The floss wasn’t part of the gift, just part of the picture.)

There are also some ornaments that have made their way safely to the UK and to some very special ladies there: Su, Veronica, and Karen V (in the order shown).

There are a staggering amount of people for whom I wanted to make a little something, but … I still can’t  stitch fast enough! Please forgive me and don’t for a nanosecond think that I care less simply because I couldn’t make something for you. I have so many special friends, and you’ve so enriched my life … I don’t know where I’d be without you!!!

And thank you for your kind words regarding my family’s sad run of losses and illness. I know there are a lot of other families out there facing as bad, or worse, and my heart goes out to you.

Oh, and the kids! They were so good, playing in their room till excused to go check their shoes for treats – and then what squeals!!! Nicky and Rowen both received a chocolate initial – Max’s gift was wrapped so we’ll have to wait till he arrives home tonight to see what he got. (The pictures of Nicky and Rowen’s initials are post-first-bite, btw!)